Work of art in three dimension and method of making same



July 31, 1962 3,046,686

A. B. FOGLE WORK OF ART IN THREE DIMENSION AND METHOD OF MAKING SAMEFiled Sept. 8, 1959 INVENTOR- /4E/V0D B. Faazs ATTURWEY 3,046,686 WORKOF ART 1N THREE DIMENSIUN AND METHQD F MAKTNG SAME Arnold B. Fogle,Shelbyville, Ind. Filed Sept. 8, 1959, Ser. No. 839,tl48 3 Claims. (Cl.41-22) This invention relates generally to art Works and moreparticularly to a method of producing reproductions of flattwo-dimensional images in such manner that a third-dimension is created,adding realistic viewing to images such as still life, landscapes, etc.

This application is a continuation-in-part of applicants parentapplication serial number 574,421, filed March 28, 1956, now abandoned.

In conventional works of art there are only two dimensions present andas a result all of the objects therein have a flat appearance. However,real subjects of art work are actually three-dimensional. Aside from thewell-known phenomenon of parallax in landscapes and the like there isalso present what is commonly termed atmospheric perspective. I I

The artist attempts to create depth by the use of shadows and additionof haze to the background. However, something is lacking from allconventional Works of art, which negates any realistic appearances ofthese art works.

With these defects of the prior methods in mind, the main object of thisinvention is to provide a method for producing a work of art which hasan amazing realistic appearance and appears to be three-dimensional.

Another object of this invention is to provide a method of producing artWorks which incorporate density of atmosphere thereinto, so that to anobserver objects in the background of the image will appear lessbrilliant in color and slightly hazy and foreground objects will appearsharp and brilliant, as would be the case when a person actually isviewing the subject matter.

Still a further object of this invention is to provide a method of thecharacter described wherein a realistic appearance is added toreproductions by producing depth physically in the picture by theseparation of foreground and background objects by the insertion oftransparent and/or translucent layers of material.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, a translucentlayer is superimposed over the image, which is only two-dimensional, andover certain areas thereof overlying portions of the image which arecloser to the observer, coloring is added corresponding to the imageportions underlying these areas. As this process is repeated, with eachstep coloring only those portions of the image which are perspectivelynearer the observer, at work of art is produced wherein those objectsappearing in the foreground, that is, perspectively nearer the observer,appear clearer than the other portions of the image. And as the image isviewed from foreground to background, the objects appearing in theseportions of the image become hazier, and are actually physicallydisposed behind the foreground because of the addition of thetranslucent layers. Thus, when viewed this work of art appearsthreedimensional because it is not only drawn with the usual parallaxbut is also drawn with those objects further in the background appearinghazier than those in the foreground to create atmospheric perspective,and in addition the foreground objects are actually disposed closer toan observer than the background objects so that the Work of art appearsin relief, and thus a three-dimensional effect is obtained.

Since the effect obtained by this method of the present inventionproduces a work of art having new characteristics there is naturally noterm available to describe the perspective qualities mentioned above.Therefore, the

3,046,686 Patented July 31, 1962 term perspective of atmosphere is usedto describe the above characteristics and will be used in thisspecification and in the following claims to describe said charac-vteristics. 'Thls term is not to be confused with atmosphericperspective. As the artist well knows this latter term is the use ofgradations of tone and color of objects to indicate relative distances,the tone and color'being dependent upon the density of the atmosphere.

7 The new term perspective of atmosphere describes an effect whereby thevolume of the atmosphere and the viewing of density in volume anddegrees of volume density and color constitutes perspective of theatmosphere, apparent by gradations of its own color according to itsviewing distance from the observer and by increase and decrease ofdensity appearing locally.

The novel features that are considered characteristic of the inventionare set forth with particularity in the appended claims. Theinventionitself, however, both as to its organization and its method ofoperation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, willbest be understood from the following description of a specificembodiment when read in connection with the accompanying drawings,wherein'like reference characters indicate like parts throughout theseveral figures and in which:

FIG; 1 illustrates a simple landscape to be referred to as an image, ande FIGS. 2-7 represent the consecutive steps in the method.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates asimple landscape including a fence in the foreground, a tree spacedtherefrom, a house a little farther back, and a hillside in thedistance. This simple landscape will be hereinafter referred to as theimage which is the fundamental picture upon which the method isperformed.

The atmosphere is designated in the conventional manner of atmosphericperspective in this view of FIG. 1 to indicate distance. That is thesubject matter thereof is indicated by gradations of color to representthe effects of atmosphere on the color of objects. The hill isrepresented as a gray color whereas the house is darker than thehillside. The tree is darker on the foreside and the fence is entirelydark and a path leads back up alongside the tree through the gap in thefence. 7

The next step is to apply a layer over the image, the layer being clearand transparent. This is used in the first step of adding perspective ofthe atmosphere to the image subject matter. This is done by applyingeither a separate sheet, or painting or pouring over the image a coatingof transparent material 14} which may be an acetate or acrylic resin, orother suitable material, the essential feature being that the materialbe transparent and durable and will be substantially quick drying.

The image as it appears through this coating 10 has very little changein its affect upon the eye. In going from the step of FIG. 2 to that ofFIG. 3, the image generally designated by the numeral 9 and having beencovered with the coating or layer 10 has a second coating 11 appliedthereto over the transparent coating 10. This second coating 11 is thatsimulating atmospheric density, such as might be represented by one ofthe resins having mattfinish or a thin extrusion of resin or material ofsuch nature as to resemble atmosphere and giving the.

The next step, illustrated in FIG. 4, involves the first step toward thedevelopment of perspective of atmosphere to the entire image subjectmatter, i.e, causing the atmosphere to appear less in volume and densityover that image subject matter nearer the observer from the backgroundto the foreground. This causes each of the objects and its intricateportions to appear in a volume of atmosphere density, appropriate indensity to its position perspectively, and this is done by applyingcoloring material to the outer surface of layer 11, the tree, the house,the foreground and distant hill and the fence being considered asforward objects. Segments of the foremost lights and shadows of theseobjects are perspectively abstracted and coincidedly reproduced on layer11 with coloring material, thereby thinning the viewing of density ofthe atmosphere over these forward objects and bringing these portionsnearer to view and allowing the remainder of the image to be viewedthrough a more dense atmosphere coloring whereby the viewing of thatportion of the subject matter in the background appears in a rearwardperspective position. Now it will be understood that the color segmentsof lights and shades as they were applied to layer 11 will cause theforward objects to appear more nearer in focus than the subject matterleft in full density of atmosphere coloring causing greater depthviewing to the subject matter than the thickness of the materials wouldproduce in any other known method.

A fifth step is now taken to give the result as viewed in FIG. 5, wherea transparent layer 12 is to be applied over the diffusing layer 11. Theimage viewed through the transparent layer 12 still has the sameappearance as that viewed in FIG. 4. Yet there is an added thickness oftransparent material added in FIG. 5.

Continuing with the method, a layer of material of atmospheric density13, is applied, as illustrated in FIG. 6 causing the over-all viewing ofthe image subject to revert to a state of viewing of greater atmosphericvolume and density and appearing in greater volume and density over therearward subject matter and in less volume and density over the nearerobjects of the image, the nearer objects now being of those havingsegments of their lights and shades represented on layer 11 as in FIG.4.

It can now be understood that as FIG. 6 is viewed with layer13 appliedover the abstractly reproduced shades of lights and darks now in view onlayer '11, that the dense atmosphere quality of this layer 11 has beennegated wherever color was applied and this presents the image seen inFIG. 6 of a variation of more or less volume of atmosphere viewingperspectively of the overall viewing of the image, resulting in anotherstep toward establishing perspective of atmosphere to the entire image.

Then the final work is done to establish complete perspective ofatmosphere to the entire image as illustrated in FIG. 7, where allobjects of the image are to be shown in their proper perspective orderwithin an apparent volume of atmosphere, relative to their original desination of the objects by atmospheric perspective. This is done byapplying coloring material to layer 13, of segments of the over-allimage subject matter and this coloring is applied in such segmentedmasses as to cause a thin ning down appearance of the density of theatmosphere over the objects nearer the observer, which allows rearwardobjects to appear in greater atmosphere density. The forward objectsthus appear more prominent and the rearward objects in the backgroundappear less in focus and farther in distance, as less of their forwardsegments are reproduced by color on layer 13.

It is to be noted in following these steps that two steps were requiredto obtain an incorporate perspective of the atmosphere viewing to theimage designated in atmospheric perspective and while this image is asimple landscape requiring but two stages a more complex image mayrequire the steps taken repeatedly, to obtain proper perspective ofatmosphere viewing to the image.

As has been indicated above the actual appearance of the pictureresulting from the method outlined is quite effective in exhibiting,perspective of atmosphere, a result which cannot be pictured by simplepen and ink sketches without the actual added transparent andatmospheric paint layers over the sheet and over the image as has beendescribed.

In the present method translucent layers are used to provide density tothe atmosphere. But adding the translucent layers alone would have theeffect of providing the element of atmosphere alone without anyperspective being provided.

Merely adding atmosphere to an image does not produce any depth to theimage when viewed. Therefore, in order to provide the third-dimension tothis image, there must be adjustment of the atmosphere. In order to dothis it is necessary to separate the foreground and backgroundthroughout the various layers so that there is less density ofatmospheric color, i.e. translucent sheets, between an observer and theforeground objects. If a translucent sheet is placed over the image itis noted that the atmosphere is the same throughout, and that it has thesame density from foreground to background.

To adjust this atmosphere and provide a third dimension the upper layersare temporarily removed and those objects nearer the viewer are liftedto the first translucent layer by copying colors and/or shades from theimage which are nearer the observer than those in the background. Withthis in mind it is noted that the lifted portions will appear more inthe foreground than the other portions in the image. To further thiseffect another translucent layer is added and to this second translucentlayer is added only those portions from the first translucent layerwhich are near the observer. When viewed this picture appears to haveeven more depth than when viewed with a single translucent layer.Depending upon the effect desired and the accuracy of the pictureneeded, a larger number of translucent layers may be provided so as togive more depth and perspective of atmosphere to the work of art.

It is to be understood that in various works of art, some of the layersmay have to be omitted completely and additional layers employed inorder to obtain the proper perspective of atmosphere and dimensionalviewing, but in any event a series of transparent and atmosphericcolored layers as described will be employed.

It should be realized that some skill is necessary to produce a work ofart which displays three-dimensional characteristics according to thepresent invention. For one thing, good judgment is needed in determiningwhich objects to place on each layer.

Furthermore, if the layers do not overlap properly, the image will notbe clear thus destroying the effect which could otherwise be obtained.Although skill is necessary, any person at all with just a littlepractice can produce works of art which have amazing three-dimensionalqualities.

Although a certain specific embodiment of the invention has been shownand described, it is obvious that many modifications thereof arepossible insofar as is necessitated by the prior art and by the spiritof the appended claims.

What is claimed as new is:

1. A method of producing a work of art in the form of an image having arealistic appearance when observed as if being viewed through depths ofatmosphere corresponding to the relative distance from an observer tovarious objects in the image, comprising the steps of applying acomplete, two dimensional original image having background andforeground objects to a surface, applying to said original image aplurality of perceptibly translucent coverings in sufficient number anddensity to produce the effect of varying depths of atmosphere atselected distances from an observer of the image, and applying colortones only to foreground objects of the image perspectively nearer anobserver on selected ones of said translucent ceveri-ngs before coveringwith additional layers of said plurality of coverings to provide anumber of translucent coverings above each foreground and backgroundobject proportional to the real atmospheric depth of said objectspictured in the original image.

2. A pictorial device in the form of an image having a realisticappearance when observed as if being viewed through depths of atmospherecorresponding to the relative distances from an observer to variousobjects in the image, comprising a surface to which is applied acomplete, two dimensional, original image having background andforeground objects, a plurality of consecutive perceptibly translucentcoverings on said surface and original image in sufi'icient number anddensity to produce the eflect of varying depths of atmosphere atselected distances from an observer of the image, and color tonesapplied only over and registering with foreground objects of the imageperspectively nearer an observer on selected ones of said translucentcoverings before covering with References Cited in the file of thispatent UNITED STATES PATENTS 18,901 Hawkins Dec. 22, 1857 636,319 CampNov. 7, 1899 1,512,010 Runcie Oct. 14, 1924 2,149,779 Kroner Mar. 7,1939 2,727,327 Colby Dec. 20, 1955 2,880,541 Kahn Apr. 7, 1959

